HTC Desire 700 dual sim review: Smarts for size

GSMArena team,
05 February 2014.

Synthetic benchmarks

The HTC Desire 700 dual sim packs a quad-core CPU and 1GB of RAM. The chipset is made by a company we are not so familiar with - Spreadtrum. Their Shark chipset uses Cortex-A7 cores as opposed to the Cortex-A5s on the Desire 600's Snapdragon 200, so we expected its performance to be around the same mark as the one of the Snapdragon 400.

The four cores run at 1.2GHz each. The Spreadtrum Shark also includes the now ageing Mali-400 GPU alongside 1GB of RAM.

The Cortex-A7 cores aren't the best performers out there so we don't expect much from the Spreadtrum Shark in the following series of benchmark tests. Still, these cores should be able to outperform the Cortex-A5 cores in the Snapdragon 200 easily.

GeekBench is a compound benchmark, which tests memory speed in addition to CPU performance. Here, the Desire 700 dual sim got the last place. The least we can say is it didn't fare well against its Snapdragon 400 competitors.

Quadrant gave the Desire 700 dual sim the boot, placing it with the smartphone ending light-years behind smartphones that are much cheaper than it like the Motorola Moto G.

Quadrant

Higher is better

Motorola Moto G 8508

Samsung Galaxy S4 mini7153

HTC One mini6048

Sony Xperia V5816

HTC Desire 600 dual sim5053

Samsung Galaxy Express4998

Sony Xperia C4941

Sony Xperia L4279

Sony Xperia M4147

Samsung Galaxy Core3240

HTC Desire 700 dual sim3219

Samsung Galaxy Core3152

The new Basemark X tests a little bit of everything but since we have only used it on flagship devices so far, the Desire 700 dual sim never stood a chance of getting anything but the last spot in our results table.

Basemark X

Higher is better

LG Nexus 5985

Samsung Galaxy Note 3961

Sony Xperia Z1 Compact931

LG G2879

HTC Desire 700 dual sim172

Because of the now-low-end Mali-400 that's running the graphics department in the Spreadtrum Shark, we had to reside back to the NenaMark 2 benchmark. Unlike mid- and high-end devices, the Desire 700 dual sim GPU didn't max out this test, but it still led the Adreno 203 by 18 frames.

NenaMark 2

Higher is better

HTC Desire 700 dual sim56.0

HTC Desire 600 dual sim38.8

Sony Xperia E dual27.7

Samsung Galaxy Fame26.9

HTC Sensation XE23.0

Sony Xperia J19.6

LG Optimus L719.3

Sony Xperia miro15.9

Samsung Galaxy mini 215.4

HTC Explorer15.1

Samsung Galaxy Y Duos13.2

Samsung Galaxy Pocket12.9

Samsung Galaxy Ace12.0

To put the graphic prowess of the Mali-400 in perspective we performed the T-Rex 1080p offscreen test - the Desire 700 dual sim managed to pump out mere 3.2 frames per second, although chances are it will never have to face 1080p screens in real life.

GFXBenchmark 2.7 T-Rex (1080p off-screen)

Higher is better

Sony Xperia Z123

Sony Xperia Z Ultra23

LG G222

Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)17.1

Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)17.1

Apple iPad 416.8

HTC Butterfly S16

Samsung Galaxy S4 Active16

Google Nexus 1013.9

LG Optimus G13.9

Sony Xperia Z13.5

Sony Xperia Tablet Z13

Sony Xperia ZL12.8

Samsung Galaxy S4 mini6.4

Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.36.3

HTC One mini5.6

Motorola Moto G 5.6

Samsung Galaxy Note II4.9

HTC Desire 700 dual sim3.2

Sony Xperia C2.8

Epic Citadel delivered a very solid score for the Desire 700 dual sim, but you have got to bear in mind it runs at the native resolution - in this case 540 x 960 px so don't go rushing in comparing it to flagship phones, which have 1080p screens. It's still a good score from the Mali 400, showing why it's so successful years after its initial release in 2010.

Epic Citadel

Higher is better

Sony Xperia Z154.9

Sony Xperia Z Ultra54.9

LG G251

HTC Desire 700 dual sim49.5

Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)37.2

Sony Xperia C36.3

HTC One35.6

Motorola Moto G 34

HTC Butterfly29.6

Now it's time to move onto web performance testing. We start with the JavaScript benchmark SunSpider. Here, the HTC Desire 700 dual sim browser produced a mediocre showing, although it's about in line with what its specs sheet suggests. BrowserMark 2 and Vellamo told similar stories.

SunSpider

Lower is better

Apple iPhone 5s403

Samsung Galaxy Note 3587

Apple iPhone 5694

Apple iPhone 5c704

Sony Xperia Z Ultra750

LG Nexus 5827

Sony Xperia Z1845

Sony Xperia Z1 Compact855

LG G2908

Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)1046

HTC One1174

HTC One mini1375

HTC Desire 700 dual sim1853

BrowserMark 2

Higher is better

Apple iPhone 5s3549

Samsung Galaxy Note 33041

Apple iPhone 52825

Apple iPhone 5c2799

Oppo N12769

LG Nexus 52745

LG G22718

Sony Xperia Z1 Compact2600

Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)2438

Sony Xperia Z Ultra2419

Sony Xperia Z12398

Samsung Galaxy S4 mini2314

HTC One2262

HTC One mini2164

HTC Desire 700 dual sim1354

Vellamo

Higher is better

Sony Xperia Z1 Compact2996

Sony Xperia Z Ultra2944

LG G22908

Sony Xperia Z12904

Samsung Galaxy Note 32853

Samsung Galaxy Note II2418

HTC One2382

HTC One mini2252

Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)2060

Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)2056

Samsung Galaxy S4 mini2019

HTC Desire 700 dual sim1264

The HTC Desire 700 dual sim obviously has problems with the benchmark performance at this stage. Barely beating Snapdragon 200 chipsets and their Cortex-A5 CPUs suggests that there's a lot of tuning still required. Good news is things aren't quite so dramatic in real life and the Desire 700 dual sim isn't terribly slow - in fact it's quite acceptable.